


not needed

by orphan_account



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ms. Marvel (Comics), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, F/M, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), that one tumblr prompt where tony doesn't need steve for shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 15:58:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11466867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Tony didn’t need Steve, and that hurt more than it should have.





	not needed

**Author's Note:**

> Based off that one prompt where Tony doesn't need Steve after Civil War, and has moved on from it. I can't find the link, but whatever.
> 
> edit: i have found the [link](http://hellveticas.tumblr.com/post/162510723901/aslightstep-hedgehog-goulash7)!

Steve stared down at the phone in his hands, waiting for it to ring. Waiting for it to do _anything_.

He’d given the phone and the letter to Tony months ago, and still Tony hadn’t called. Now though, he _had_ to… surely in the face of an alien threat like Thanos, they would need the Avengers? Tony could have made a new Avengers team, but the truth of the matter was that they wouldn’t be as good as Steve’s team, and Tony had to know that.

Sam had been watching Steve for almost as long as Steve had been watching the phone, and eventually he sighed. “Steve, man, if you want to talk to him that much, maybe you should just… I don’t know, _call_?”

Steve looked at him in what was almost confusion, before he thought about it. Of course. Tony would be waiting for them to call… his ego and his pride would never let him call Steve first, let him know that he needed them.

So Steve gulped, pushed out a familiar number, and pressed _call_. It rang for a few seconds, longer than it should have, and wasn’t that _just like_ Tony, to pretend he wasn’t waiting for them to call by answering at the last minute.

He was surprised then, when instead of Tony answering the phone, he heard a polite British voice. _Vision_.

“Mr Rogers, what do you need?”

This… didn’t make sense. Where was Tony?

“Oh – I, heard about the thing with Thanos… do you, need us to come in and help?”

There was a pause, when Steve assumed that Vision was running the numbers and deciding.

“Yes, that would be beneficial. You’ll be granted a temporary pardon while helping, but then you’ll have to answer for your previous actions. Of course, you will have to sign the Accords.” This stopped Steve in his tracks.

“We’ll have to sign the Accords.” He saw Sam look up at him from where he was sitting, and then go to call the rest of the team in. A few minutes later everyone was crowded around the phone.

“Well, yes, I thought that was self-explanatory. Everyone else coming in to fight has already signed, even the Guardians, and they aren’t even on this planet most of the time.”

“You mean you’re calling in aliens… to fight aliens.”

“Exactly.”

Steve shook his head and looked to his team, where Sam had just finished explaining the rest of the conversation.

Suddenly there was a noise as if the phone had switched hands, and Steve smiled. Finally, Tony would talk about this himself, maybe even apologise.

Instead, there was a young voice. “Hey, could you give the phone to Ant-Man? I think his real name is like, Scott? Yeah, Scott Lang.”

Steve frowned. “Who is this?” Everyone looked at him in alarm.

“Spider-Man. Just, please put Ant-Man on the phone.”

Steve just shrugged and held the phone out to Scott. “Spider-Man,” he said by way of explanation, and the rest of the team calmed just a little bit.

Scott took it cautiously, and listened to whatever Spider-Man had to say.

(Speaking of Spider-Man, why would Tony bring a kid into battle? He couldn’t have been in his twenties. At least on Steve’s team, everyone had been old enough to fight.)

“Hope’s already signed?” Scott said, and then listened to the rest of the explanation. He winced at one part, and then nodded slowly. “Ok, yeah, if Hope’s signed then I guess they can’t be _too_ bad. Sure, I’ll be there!”

At some point during the explanation, T’Challa had walked in and was standing at the end of the room. He nodded to Scott, and then got one of the Dora Milaje to escort him out to where Steve assumed a Quinjet was waiting for them. Before he left though, he handed the phone to Clint.

“Laura?” he breathed, and with that the whole team knew that Clint was going to go. Wanda would most likely sign after Clint, trusting him more than she trusted most people on the team.

Steve shook his head. It was just like Tony to use people they loved to get them to sign. He watched as one by one the people on his team signed, until only he and Sam were left.

Sam looked at him. Steve only nodded and signed. They couldn’t leave the rest of the team out there with Tony.

Steve took the phone back, and shrugged. “Ok, then… I guess we’ll be there soon.”

 

Tony wasn’t outside waiting to meet them either. Instead Pepper was, in all her professional glory.

Some part of Steve registered that there was a ring on her finger. Steve stared at it for a second. He was happy for her and Tony, really, he was. At least now he knew that Tony wouldn’t have been _completely_ miserable without the team. At least now, Pepper could help him if it got too bad.

(Another part of him registered that she was _here_ , in Wakanda. She knew where they were. _Tony_ knew where they were.)

He smiled her way and held out his hand to her, but she just ignored both and instead fixed them with and icy glare. He heard someone whistle from behind him – probably Scott, who hadn’t met her before.

“I’m here to get you back to the Compound,” she said, and her tone made it quite clear that she would rather _not_ be doing this. “I’m going to make this clear now. I _do not_ like you. I do not agree with you, and if it were up to me you’d all be rotting in some remote prison right now. _At least_ , you wouldn’t be coming anywhere near Tony or any other Stark Industries property.”

Steve stepped back a bit, to where he could see all the members of his team, and make sure she _hadn’t_ done something like that while he wasn’t watching.

“However,” Pepper continued, “people have decided that we… _need_ you for this. But I warn you now, if you step one foot out of line, I will come through on those scenarios I talked about earlier.”

Then she walked away, her stilettos clicking against the pavement.

Scott whistled again. “Holy shit, that was… _scary_.”

Everyone else just nodded in agreement, before walking slowly into the Quinjet.

All of them took seats as far away as they could from Pepper.

 

Eventually they touched down next to the Compound. Now _this_ was what Steve was ready for. There was no way Tony would be able to avoid them here.

They all walked in, and Steve was almost shocked by what he saw there.

(First, FRIDAY hadn’t said anything to any of them. What she _had_ done though, and only _so far_ , was slam doors both behind and in front of them, and flicker the lights so that they smashed into corners that they couldn’t see. Steve made a mental note to talk to Tony about this, they couldn’t be expected to help while FRIDAY was doing this to them.)

On the couch, almost hastily discarded, was a white lab coat that looked suspiciously like one of Bruce’s. He might have been wrong about the owner – surely Tony knew lots of scientists – but the glasses on the table meant that he had to be correct. Those glasses couldn’t have belonged to anybody _but_ Bruce, but the scientist wasn’t in the room.

Was he… _avoiding_ them? But that didn’t make sense. The team had nothing against _Bruce_ , it was Tony they were angry with. Bruce hadn’t done anything wrong, he didn’t need to be worried about that.

On the table were three sets of books, all for different things, but also all looking like homework. There were notes in what looked like Tony’s handwriting around each set, as well as a phone and some chips.

One of the sets of books must have belonged to Spider-Man, but who were the other two?

There were some throwing knives on the other side of the table, meaning _Natasha_ must have been here at some point.

There were crutches against the wall, which could have belonged to no one but Rhodes, and ok, _maybe_ there was some guilt there, which made no sense. It wasn’t like Steve had had any part in his injury.

Rhodes being there with Tony wasn’t even close to a surprise to Steve though. They had been best friends for longer than most people on Steve’s team had been alive.

It amazed him to this day that Rhodes had been able to put up with Tony for that long.

There were even toys spread across the floor, which… ok, that one made _no sense_ to Steve.

As they all looked around, Steve started to hear voices coming down the hallway. _Finally_ , Tony.

He opened the door and walked in, causing the entire team to flinch. He was followed by three teenagers and, they were probably the ones who the books belonged to.

(Which meant that one of them was Spider-Man. It was a choice between the two boys following Tony, but when one of them opened his mouth and started talking in an excited voice, Steve decided that it was _definitely_ him.)

The one that Steve had decided was Spider-Man stopped talking, and then looked up at Tony and whispered something in his ear. Tony groaned almost… _playfully_ , and wasn’t that a surprise?

“No, you _cannot_ punch him.”

“But Mr Stark!”

“No.”

Steve took the chance to look at Tony. He… he looked good, not at all how Steve had imagined him. He didn’t look like he’d had any trouble during the months they’d been apart, not at all.

In fact, he looked happier than he had when the Avengers were all together. He looked more relaxed as well.

Sam cleared his throat to remind them that _they were right here_ , but he was ignored.

“ _No_ , Peter.” Then the other two looked at him innocently.

“What about me? Can _I_ punch him?”

“Kamala…” Tony groaned.

“What about me?”

“ _Harley_ … you don’t even have powers! You’d break your hand on his face!”

Steve thought about what they were saying, and then was almost offended.

“Why would you want to punch me? I’ve done nothing wrong…” he trailed off when the teenagers all glared at him.

Well, at least Tony was standing up for him.

“’Nothing wrong’?” Harley yelled, but before he could keep going, Tony put a hand in front of him.

“Maybe you guys should go cool down a bit. Seriously, Harley, you don’t have powers and I haven’t finished your armour yet. _Stop challenging super-soldiers to fights_.”

With that he finally turned to Steve’s team, and rolled his eyes fondly. “Kids… what can you do?”

He shook his head. “Anyway, your rooms are where you left them… Lang, you’re next to Hope. I’ll show you where that is when you’re ready.”

He said nothing after that and instead smiled at whatever someone had just texted him. Steve looked at the rest of his team, and then spoke.

“Tony, aren’t you going to… _apologise_?” he prompted, and was unprepared for Tony’s glare.

“No, Rogers,” and didn’t that hurt, “I’m not going to apologise, because I have nothing to apologise for. Ok, I probably could have gone about the whole _Wanda_ thing better,” as he said that, a red mist began to form around Wanda’s fingers, “but it was to protect her. Everything else was _your_ fault. I’m done taking the blame for everything that happens.”

With that, he pointed a finger at Scott and started to lead him to his room. While they were walking out Scott said something quickly and excitedly, before Tony replied – again, almost _fondly_ – “Oh my god. You’re just like the Spiderling. An _older version_ of Peter – twice the questions. Holy shit, Hope could have warned us.”

Followed by, “Hey, I was born first, Peter is the _younger version_ of me. That’s just how it works.”

“…Exactly like him.”

Steve shook his head in amazement and walked after them. He grabbed onto Tony’s arm before he could leave.

Tony glared at him and shook his hand away, and Steve thought about what he wanted to say now. “Why… why didn’t you call?”

He _hated_ how quiet his voice was. Tony raised an eyebrow.

“You said to call if I needed you,” he said simply, and crushed something in Steve.

Tony… Tony _hadn’t_ been waiting at the phone like Steve had. Tony hadn’t been miserable, in fact he looked just the opposite.

Tony didn’t need him, not like he needed Tony.

He heard the three kids laugh from behind the door, and even Scott chuckle, but it didn’t register with him.

 _Tony didn’t need him._ Tony had found a new family, in Pepper, in these kids – Peter, Harley, Kamala – in Bruce, in Rhodes, in Natasha.

Tony didn’t need Steve, and that hurt more than it should have.

**Author's Note:**

> my [tumblr](http://wwwlw.tumblr.com/)
> 
> this was fun to write but makes no sense tbh


End file.
